A Slice of Love

The Collapse

Matt's POV

It was weird. All of it. I had never seen Olive so...so broken. I had never seen her just collapse like that. I had never seen this before, and never really had to deal with this, being an only child and all. Olive had fallen asleep in my arms last night, and now it was almost 7 in the morning and I hadn't slept all night long. I couldn't get the look on Olive's face when she left the cafeteria and when I saw her at my door. I couldn't even explain how I felt. I felt like it was my responsibility to stop this from happening, but failed. I know it's dumb but she is so lonely in this world that I felt as though I should have seen this coming. I got up, lightly laying Olive down and heading into the kitchen. I called up Sarah and told her we weren't coming to school. She told me she understood after yesterday and that she'd make sure to keep the rumors from getting out of control. I now understood why they were such good friends, I mean Sarah is always there for Olive and they really balance each other out. Sarah is excited and very energetic while Olive is fun and sarcastic but still level headed.

Olive emerged from my room, rubbing her eyes just as I finished making scrambled eggs. She gave me a smile, I sat down and began eating.

"Are we going to work today?" She asked me, like today was just a regular day.

"Well..no. I mean I figured you'd want to chill out. I mean that's why we aren't at school." Matt says and she shrugs.

"I think work will distract me from my life. Please?" she asks, looking  very sweet and innocent.

"Alright sure thing." I say, and give her a smile. Maybe she isn't as bad as I think.

Olive's POV

I wanted to go to work. I honestly don't know why, but something was telling me it'd be good if I just went to work today. You know, get away from all of the drama from school. Matt agreed with me and we headed to work 20 minutes later. Julie had came in late and Matt just nodded to her as she passed him, or actually stomped past him. As I finished my table, and business was starting to slow, I walked over to Matt.

"What's Julie's deal?" I ask and Matt looks over at where Julie is standing in front of a customer looking pretty ticked off.

"I'm sure it's nothing." Matt said and I just shrugged. I'm working on my next table when I notice Julie standing by Matt. I had expected her to be flirting, but she looked like she was angry at Matt. Then she pointed to me and I frowned. What are they talking about? My curiosity got the best of me and I crept over to where they were standing.

"Did you tell her?" She hissed to Matt and he frowned.

"I would never do that." Matt denied. Tell me? Are they talking about me?

"Why is she here today? I thought you said she was going to be staying home today. You do realize that she's just going to but her way into any of our conversations. It's not fair." She said and I swear I saw her tear up a bit before blinking tears away. What the hell? "I don't care if you're dating Olive, I need your help." Julie begged and I had never seen her like this. What kind of help does she need? It must be serious, I noticed that the tables she was in charge of were getting annoyed from waiting. I decided to help her and began serving her tables. I had passed Julie with food and she stopped arguing with Matt to look at me perplexed. I placed the food at her tables, and then took a seat in the corner, wiping away sweat. Julie walked over to me, and Matt looked wide eyed from behind me. "What are you doing Olive." She said through gritted teeth.

"I was helping you out. Your tables were getting impatient and I just didn't want you to get a low tip." I say and her eyebrows pull together in confusion.